STV-max
The STV-max voting system is a special case of "single transferable vote", or STV. STV is a voting system that provides approximate proportional representation while retaining a degree of local representation. It achieves this by creating relatively large, multi-member constituencies that each elect more than one member (usually three or more, and ideally at least six). These multi-member constituencies are often created by merging former single-member constituencies. Multi-member constituencies, combined with STV's mechanisms for avoiding "wasted votes" (any vote that would otherwise be wasted automatically transfers to the next candidate on the vote's preference list), means that relatively niche parties are likely to get some representation - for instance, in a three-member constituency, if 2/3 of the electorate votes for candidates from party A and 1/3 votes for candidates from party B, the result will be 2 members from party A and 1 from party B. STV-max simply does away with the formal local representation element of STV, by effectively creating one enormous constituency that elects an entire political body - hence, the 'max'imum possible district size. The main justification for doing so is the observation that in constituency-based systems, while there are certainly notable exceptions, constituency representatives in general don't do a very good job of representing their constituents - partly due to gerrymandering (and, in STV, constituency-splitting, which is effectively a form of gerrymandering). Meanwhile, STV-max maximises the degree of proportionality, ensuring that every possible electoral niche, however small, is able to elect one or more candidates and hold those candidates to account in future elections. For instance, these niches may include candidates that specialise in representing particular ethnic minorities, sexual orientations, or types of community. For instance, there may be candidates that specialise in representing people who live on small islands, or in remote rural areas, or in run-down areas of large cities. In the case of the small island specialist, such a member might have to work hard to represent the interests of all such islands across the country or union, or risk losing important votes. This points to one of the most beneficial aspects of STV-max: every member of the political body can receive votes from every geographical part of the country or union, meaning that each member is incentivised to court the electorate in every locality, not just one. Incidentally, it is still possible for a candidate to be elected by courting one particular region, and this is likely to happen in some cases. This is a valid electoral niche just like any other. However, unlike in conventional constituency-based systems, they will have to work hard to retain those votes. Understanding STV-max STV-max is also potentially easier to understand than ordinary STV. It can be characterised, to a certain extent, as a "presidency with many winners". The hardest part to understand is vote transfer. Each vote consists of a preference list - a list of candidates in order of preference. The list is created by a voter by putting a 1 next to their favourite candidate, a 2 next to their second favourite, a 3 next to their third favourite, and so on. These can then be written out in order (1, 2, 3...), giving the preference list. At the first stage of processing, there are two possibilities: either the vote will be assigned to its number 1 candidate - or, if its number 1 candidate either has enough votes already, or has no way to make enough votes to win, the number 1 candidate is discarded from this vote's preference list, and the vote's number 2 candidate is considered next (and so on). Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of this is how to decide which votes to assign to a winning candidate, and which to carry over to their next preference. The answer is quite complex, but in general, this is done in such a way as to minimise the effect that the removal of these (winning) votes has on the overall outcome. In practice, this means ensuring that the overall profile of the removed votes is the same as the overall profile of the votes not removed. The "required number of votes" may also be confusing for some people. Let's say the political body consists of N members. The goal of STV-max is to divide all (or as many as possible) of the available votes into N groups of equal size, such that within each group, all of the votes contain the same candidate, somewhere on each of their preference lists (while also trying to ensure that it is as high up each list as possible). This division into N groups of equal size naturally means that there is a "winning threshold", which is the total number of votes in the entire election (minus wasted votes), divided by N. Category:Ideas and concepts